PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Walking
up to a one-room cement block house on the outskirts of Croix des Bouquet,
Tommy Green “oohed” and “aahed” over a snuggly wrapped newborn of a young
Haitian.
It was a scorching hot day
in October and Green had gone to visit one of the first families to move into a
home recently constructed by Haitian laborers under the direction of a
rebuilding effort led by the Florida Baptist Convention.
“She delivered the baby
during the construction and now they have a safe home in which to live,” said
Green, pastor of First Baptist Church in Brandon.
The meeting personified the
Florida pastor’s trip to Haiti to teach seminary classes to Haitian pastors and
see firsthand the work of Florida Baptists in the nine months since the earthquake.
Photo by Ken Touchton/Florida Baptist Convention A youngster waits outside the Florida Baptist Mission House in Port-au-Prince for food in the early days after the Jan. 12 earthquake. Florida and Southern Baptists distributed 65 tons of rice and 20 tons of beans in the aftermath of the earthquake and have another 17 tons of rice ready for disbursement if a hurricane hits. |
“One life being changed in
the Lord is the focus of the work that we must do in Haiti,” said Green, a
former president of the Florida Baptist State Convention.
“This baby boy might be the
one that God will raise up to be the voice that will be used to change the
entire nation of Haiti,” Green said.
Upon his return to Florida,
Green said he “left Haiti with a heavy heart for the hurt and struggles of the
people and with a thankful heart that I serve in partnership with the Florida
Baptist Convention which takes seriously the demands of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ to touch the world with the love of Jesus Christ.”
For nine months, Florida
Baptists have joined hands with Haitian Baptists to mount an all-out recovery
plan to heal shattered lives from the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that shook the
core of Port-au-Prince and the surrounding region Jan. 12.
Working in conjunction with
Southern Baptist Convention disaster relief and the church leaders of the
Confraternite Missionaire Baptiste d’Haiti (CMBH), Florida Baptist disaster
relief leaders are looking toward the future while assessing the past nine
months.
The next phase of work in
Haiti — CMBH Rebuild, focusing on constructing homes and rebuilding churches —
launched Oct. 1, closing the door on the relief phase, said Fritz Wilson,
incident commander of the Haiti earthquake response and Florida Baptist
disaster relief director.
Foremost in the plan is a
goal of building 3,200 “transitional homes,” a 12-by-16-foot cement block
structure with a metal roof. Additionally, relief workers have set a “Hallelujah
goal” to build another 3,000 homes to bring the total of new homes planned for
the Haitian people to more than 6,000.
Funding for these homes will
be shared through resources from the Florida convention, North American Mission
Board and Baptist Global Response relief organization and additional donations.
Other state conventions have
expressed interest in helping to build homes, including the Kentucky Baptist
Convention which has earmarked $200,000 for the rebuild.
Florida Baptists developed
the model for the transitional home using the experiences they gathered as they
tore down homes damaged by the earthquake and built 350 temporary shelters for
more than 350 families. The concept is similar to one used by BGR after the
2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
The homes will be built
primarily on sites where previous homes had been located, Wilson said, to keep
families together.
Volunteers will not be
needed to build the houses. Instead, Haitians will be hired and trained to do
the construction, which will “provide jobs and job skills to families in
addition to building homes,” Wilson said.
Currently the CMBH Rebuild
is employing 117 Haitians as contract workers to build homes, including 35 who
are managing the construction. Wilson believes as many as 200 Haitians will be
employed in the future.
Construction materials will
be purchased in the country to help the local economy and to avoid construction
delays and “the challenge of getting donated materials through the Haitian
customs system,” Wilson said.
Ultimately, Wilson believes
the construction of new homes will serve as a platform for local churches to
evangelize their communities. “Our goal is to build a home for a lost family
for every home we build for a church member,” he said.
Along with the building of
homes, another $300,000 is allocated to help rebuild 186 churches damaged in
the earthquake. Funding will not cover all repair and reconstruction costs for
the churches, Wilson said, which will allow Haitian churches to contribute to
their own buildings.
During the relief phase of
the past nine months, Florida Baptists as well as Southern Baptist from around
the country alongside CMBH churches accomplished more than most people could
have imagined, Wilson said.
Primary among the
accomplishments, Wilson said, is the work of the CMBH churches to seize the
time of spiritual unrest caused by the earthquake to lead 165,213 Haitians to
Christ and start 272 churches.
Added to that, another 2,000
professions of faith were reported by Florida and Southern Baptist disaster
relief and ministry teams, which included 1,800 volunteers from 39 state
conventions and the Canadian National Baptist Convention. More than 200
volunteers were from Florida Baptist churches.
Another 200 Florida Baptist
volunteers worked stateside in the relief effort, which included collecting,
palletizing and shipping Buckets of Hope food supplies for Haitian families.
The Haiti earthquake spurred
the largest international medical response in Southern Baptist disaster relief
history, Wilson said. From mid-January through March, an average of three
medical teams per week was deployed. After that, three medical teams a month
were sent to Haiti.
Yet perhaps the greatest
phenomena of the relief effort, Wilson said, was the concept and implementation
of Buckets of Hope as a hands-on ministry that every Southern Baptist church
could adopt. Wilson conceived the idea and developed the process, including
determining packaging and food stuffs to purchasing the buckets.
To date, 150,000 Buckets
have been filled by Southern Baptists and shipped to Haitian families.
As of Oct. 1, Wilson
reported, 80,000 buckets had distributed throughout Haiti, both in the quake
zone and in outlying areas to families who lost their homes and migrated to
other areas. Another 60,000 buckets remained in port at Port-au-Prince awaiting
clearance through customs, while 10,000 buckets were in transit from the United
States.
Currently, buckets are being
dispersed at a rate of 10,000 a week, and all are expected to be distributed by
Thanksgiving.
To accomplish a relief
effort of this magnitude has been amazing, Wilson said, yet it could not have
been done without vision and dozens of people working behind the scene.
“The establishment of the
CMBH 15 years ago along with the work of the Florida Baptist Convention’s
Partnership Missions Department laid the groundwork for what was accomplished.
Without that organization, we would have been struggling to accomplish half of
what we did,” he said.
Likewise, Wilson added, “The
Lord’s sparing of the CMBH guest house and the many churches located near the
tent cities allowed us to minister more effectively to the people of Haiti,
giving a home base for operations and housing for volunteers.”
It is “remarkable,” said
Craig Culbreth, director of the Florida convention’s Partnership Missions
Department, “that in spite of the death and destruction in Haiti, we have made
advancements in the work. A total of 272 new churches, 165,000 new Christian
believers and increasing the size of the CMBH mission house to accommodate more
volunteers — that is growth.
“Rather than take a step
backwards, in the past nine months, the CMBH has taken three or four steps
forwards. That is a miracle of God,” Culbreth said.
Pastor Green who has
traveled back and forth to Haiti concurred. “The confidence of Florida Baptists
can remain high that the gifts to Haiti donated through the Florida Baptist
Convention are reaching and impacting the lives of people in Haiti,” he said.
“I rejoice for the vision of (convention executive director) Dr. John Sullivan for the work in Haiti and
that we were on the ground before, during and after the earthquake sharing the
love of Jesus Christ with the hurting in this country,” Green said.
“The salvation decisions
that are being made in Haiti are a reflection of the presence of the Lord
through the ministry of Florida Baptists in Haiti.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Denman
is director of communications for the Florida Baptist Convention.)
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